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THE ALABAMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
MONXOOMERY 

Reprint No. 4 



Semi-Centennial Ode 



BY 



WARFIELD CREATH RICHARDSON, Ph. D. 



[From the TRANSACTIONS 1899-1903, Vol. IV] 



MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA 
1904 



VII. SEMI-CENTENNIAL ODE.^ 
By Warfiei^d Creath Richardson/ Tuscaloosa. 

'Tis fifty j'ears, — how, runs the world away ! 
Since first we met, as meet we here to-day. 
Not long agone the State had been a wild. 
Where roamed at will th' untutored forest child. 
Not long agone his council-fires had shone 
On dusky braves in lodges wild and lone, 
The good Manito's hands were largely spread 
In blessings o'er his bare and tufted head, 
And not a sound disturbed the wide domain. 
Save hoot of owl far out upon the plain. 
Save the gaunt grey wolf's ululating roar 
From Coosa's brakes or Estanaula's shore. 
The white man came, — the tomahawk and knife 
Against the paleface waged a deadly strife — 
The night attack, the torch, the hundreds slain, 
The cabins sacked, the booty burnt or ta'en, — 
All these, in swift succession, hurry by 
To chill the blood or fright the startled eye. 

^ Delivered before the Alabama Historical Society at its fiftieth anniver- 
sary, June 18, 1900. 

'^ In the latter part of the i8th century three Richardsons, brothers em- 
igrated to this country from England. When they reached America, they 
separated, one remaining in Virginia, the others finding homes respectively 
in North and South Carolina. The subject of the following sketch de- 
scended from the Virginia branch of the stock. Warfield Creath Richard- 
son, fourth child of Thomas Gaines and Sarah (Perry) Richardson, was 
born in Maysville, Kentucky, June 23, 1823. His father and mother came 
to Kentucky, when quite young, from Culpeper Court House, Virginia. 
The mother, Sarah Perry, was of Scotch-Irish descent. She was reared 
in Woodford county, in the Blue Grass region, between Lexington and 
Versailles, on a farm adjoining Ashland, the home of Henry Clay. When 
a boy, Dr. Richardson attended the Rand and Richeson academy, where 
he was a schoolmate of U. S. Grant. In 1837 his father moved to Tusca- 
loosa, and in 1839 he entered the State University, where he graduated in 
1843. After graduation he taught for about thirty years in various schools 
in Alabama, and was twice connected officially with his alma mater. He 
was married. November 16, 1855, to Miss Kate Jones, of Wilcox, accom- 
plished daughter of Rev. John C. and Mary Ann (Walker) Jones, 
of Williamsburg, Va. Her great-grandfather, John Jones, was twice 
speaker of the house of burgesses, and was occupying the chair when 
Patrick Henry made his memorable speech, concluding with "Give me lib- 
erty or give me death." She is a sister of Richard C. Jones, late President 
of the University. Dr. Richardson has two children living, Mrs. Belle 
R. Harrison, well known in the literary world, and wife of J. Calhoun Har 
rison, and Mrs. Ida May Wood, wife of Sterling A. Wood, of Birming- 
ham, for many years clerk of the Supreme court of Alabama. 

The Register of the University of Alabama (1901), gives in part Dr. 
Richardson's record as follows : Principal Wilcox Male Academy, Camden, 

(103) 



[04 Alabama Historical Society, 

'Tis fifty years, — how runs the world away ! 
Since first we met, as meet we here to-day, 
Intent to grave on tablet sure and fast 
The faithful annals of a bloody past, 
Behold our ranks — how thin ! ah, some are gone 
Into the golden gates of life withdrawn. 
Some dwell in distant lands, some seek afar 
"The bubble honor" in a foreign war ; 
Some are astir, some have lain down to rest, 
And found earth's lap soft as a mother's breast, — 
Where'er they be, awake, asleep or dead, 
Heaven's choicest blessings settle on each head. 

All things are vocal : man alone records 
His actions and his history in words. 
There's not a pebble tossing on the beach 
But has the cunning faculty of speech, — 
Tells of the parent rock from which 't was torn, 
Tells of the tides by which 't was inland borne. 
Tells of the whirl that rounded it, and gave 
A polish glossy as the ambient wave. 
The land has speech, the hoary mountains tell 
Of by-gone ages when they 'gan to swell, 
Like slumbering giants bursting thro' the earth. 
The babbling rivers prattle of their birth. 
The trees inscribe their eons in a book 
Of ribbed papyrus where the sages look. 
The sea has tongue, and to the wise is heard 
To tell her sources, tho' no wave be stirred, 
How from the cloud each crystal drop is hurled 
Athwart the sphere to swell the ocean world. 

Alabama, first of all the States, 

The cap-stone and the key — thy haughty mates 
Like sheaves of Joseph's brethren bow to thee, 
The prince, the arch file-leader of the free. 

1 fling thee kisses, honor, reverence, awe, 
I bask in peace beneath thy aegis — law ; 
Beneath thy vine and fig tree I repose. 
No fear of factions and no fear of foes. 
And shall thy deeds in silence roll away. 
Without a hand to rescue or portray? 
Thy incidents are rife on every hill. 
Thy characters a Pantheon would fill. 



1851-55; professor natural science, Centenary Institute, Summerfield, 1855- 
62; lecturer on chemistry, University of Alabama, 1864-65; president 
Tuscaloosa Female College. 1866-68; acting professor of Greek, Univer- 
sity of Alabama, 1876-77; adjunct professor of English literature and in- 
structor in mineralogy and geology, University of Alabama, 1877. 

The degree of Ph. D. was conferred on Prof. Richardson by the Agricul- 
tural and Mechanical College at Auburn, Ala., in 1878. Dr. Richardson's 
literary, scientific and educational miscellanies would fill several large vol- 
umes. He has delivered innumerable commencement, Sabbath-school, edu- 
cational and temperance addresses. He edited the first two temperance 
papers in the State, viz: the Crystal Fount, of Tuscaloosa, and the 
Orion, of Montgomery. He was also, in Ryland Randolph's absence, 
engaged upon the Blade. He is the author of Caspar, a poetical romaunt, 
which was praised by Bryant. Also of the "Fall of the Alamo," an un- 
published epic prepared at the instance of the Alabama Historical Society. 
— Editor. 



Semi-Centennial Ode. — Richardson. 105 

There's not a spot in all the wide, wide State 
But hath some myth or legend to relate ; 
There's not a plain but shows some conquest won, 
Some bleeding cause "bequeathed from sire to son;" 
There's not a gorge where warriors have not fought, 
Or valor shown or deeds of prowess wrought. 
Sweet glamor gilds and romance silvers o'er 
Each mountain, river, valley, slope or shore. 
Could we but lift the soft, ethereal haze 
That shrouds them, on what actors would we gaze, 
What scenes .ecall, what retrospects disclose 
Of Alabama and her early foes? 
Who were they? let renowned Emuckfau tell, 
Tohopeka, and each reddened copse and dell, 
From Tallassee to Burnt Corn, where began 
The conflict that with blood of hundreds ran. 

Take up, take up the broken chords of song, 
Take up her history delayed too long. 
Take up the tablet and the stylus — write 
What long neglected no man may indite ; 
Let harp be strung — let all her fibres ring, 
Ere rust dissever each corroded string. 

Have ye no thesis? ah, there is a name. 

The synonym of glory and of fame, 

A name that's registered so passing high. 

That it can never pale, can never die, 

A name the talisman of every son 

That Alabama looks in pride upon. 

Go write it on your State's escutcheon, where 

Millions can view its splendor and repair 

To do it homage : other names are small, 

For Hobson's dwarfs, impoverishes all. 

My country, O my count rj- — 't is to thee 

I proudly turn, but tremble when I see 

Thy giddy height, thy fulgent ensign raised 

Aloft, where anxious, prayerful eyes have gazed. 

Thy breast-plate is a continent, — the sea 

Thy moat,^the lofty Rockies be 

Thy castle and defence, — thy sons thy stay 

And muniment, — away, away 

Thy path is through the centuries, — thy head 

Knocketh the stars, — thou walkest over dead 

Empires whose colossal fragments lie. 

Heaped like dry bones between the earth and sky, 

And shall thy glories crumble? Shall thy brow 

Be ever less majestical than now? 

Great God forbid ! As the swift years roll on. 

May not thy chariot wheels wreathed with renown 

Go crashing down the ages like the sun, 

Or the scorched wheel of headlong Ixion. 

We have a flag with deathless colors dight. 
We have a flag that never flew in flight. 
Far may it fly, but not in conquest — not 
To fling a shadow o'er earth's humblest spot, 
To carry shackles or a menace be 



io6 Alabama Historical Society. 

To a brave people struggling to be free. 

Far may it fly, the empyrean through 

A constellation in the sparkling blue, 

The cynosure of every patriot eye, 

Unmarred, unstained, untarnished let it fly 

Not like the Roman eagle stained with gore, 

Not with the tears of captives dabbled o'er, 

But sworn as now to break th' oppressors thrall, 

And carry equal privilege to all. 

To spurn the sphere, to scale the lofty skies, 

To catch from yonder sun supernal dyes. 

To soar in triumph over land and sea. 

And lead men on to peerless liberty. 





















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